Other External products

[Xaire]

Hello, I'm new here and I recently bought a Seagate Expansion 3TB 3.0 USB. Well, I'm just bothered by the random annoying clicks...  The drive keeps on clicking at random intervals (but you'll notice it's persistence).

The earlier clicks was like at least 5-10 times a day. But now, it clicks like more or less 50 times a for a day. I let the drive cooldown during the times i don't use it, but sometimes during idle times (connected and powered on but not in use) it still randomly clicks... and the bad thing is, sometimes when I'm accessing the drive my computer freezes like it's getting a hard time getting the file informations... which now really bothers me...

My 1TB FreeAgent, was just recently replaced by Seagate... And I don't want to lose anymore files...

Lastly using HD Tune Free 2.55 in my 3TB gives me error. It aborts the operation, so I can't check for errors... And Defragggler also gives error... It can build filelist, more so it can't defrag the drive.

So here are my questions...

Should I be bothered?

Is there anyway that the clicks be removed or at least lessened to minimum?

Some games don't work while being accessed through the 3TB, but works when transferred to my 1TB (Portable) and 80GB (Internal), what should I do about these?

Any more pro tips for taking care of the drive, as it is now, I don't even move it from its location as I'm scared something might happen like my 1TB?

Please tell me things I should remember about the drives... I'm a noob at this techy stuffs, I read the Common Issues and FAQs and it says clicks are normal..... But I really don't think it's normal... Also there is no 3TB firmware update... I mean I really don't know what I'm saying/typing/doing...

Please help me.

Thank you very much,

Alexaire Raymundo (Random Netizen)

EDIT: Sorry for the long post!
EDIT2: The drive clicks every 3-5 minutes or so, even while I'm typing this, it clicked a few times...

[AskTheLeaf · Accepted solution]

Hi Alexaire, 

I can understand your concern about the drive and anytime you hear noises that seem unusual it's a good idea to check up on those.

In this case, however, you'll want to use SeaTools for Windows to test the drive:

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

There is no firmware update available for this drive model.

Before you continue with troubleshooting or adding more data to the drive, I'd also recommend backing up your data onto another external device.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/190751en?language=en_US

For assistance with running programs from this drive, please contact the respective software manufacturers. Most programs were designed to run from your computer's main drive, so anytime you want to run them from another location, it's a good idea to get in touch with them for support.

[Xaire]

Thank you very much for the reply.

As it turns out, after using SeaTools for Windows.

My drive passed all the basic tests. (Short DST, Short Generic and Long Generic).

Also back up'd all all my files now.

Thank you very much again!  

Alexaire Raymundo (Random Netizen)